Snack items include a wide variety of foods including potato chips, corn chips, puffed dough articles, cookies and crackers. Processed snack foods are generally provided to the consumer in a ready-to-eat form. Food snacks are generally eaten separately from regular meals or used to supplement a meal.
Snack foods include chip products and crackers. Chip products are frequently made from wheat or other starch-containing ingredients that are deep fat fried. Examples of chip products include corn chips and potato chips. Crackers are usually baked products and have a high content of wheat or other gluten containing flour and non-gluten flour that can form a dough. Cracker dough is machined during its processing and is baked dry or to a water content, that provides the final chip product with a crispy texture.
The ingredients used to make corn chips or potato chips have little or no gluten and consist essentially of starch. A hydrated starch or gelatinous composition without gluten typically does not form a machinable dough. For this reason starchy materials such as corn flour, or potato flour are not used to make crackers. The dough used to make crackers must have enough strength that it can be stretched during machining or sheeting and laminating. Typically, starchy materials such as corn flour and potato flour when mixed with water do not form a dough that is "workable" or machinable or sheetable. Most snack foods produced from starchy materials must be extruded to form a final product or mixed with a gluten-containing flour to form a dough that can be machined and baked into a final product.
Most baked snack products which are made from starchy materials are prepared initially by forming a composition from water and starch flour. Seasonings and flavorings can be added to the composition. The dough composition is then extruded. The extruded composition is cut and dropped onto a belt or tray and transported to an oven for baking. After baking, the snack food is further dried or cooked to allow for the extraction of as much moisture as possible. The extruded or otherwise shaped starch composition can alternatively be deep fried instead of baked to make the final product crispy. There are many other variations on this basic procedure and compositions used.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,202 to Wang et al discloses a process for making shredded potato products. The invention of this patent forms a potato starch and water dough mass which is then tempered to obtain an even water distribution. The dough mass is then shredded and the resulting shredded dough pieces are baked. This patent does not disclose a method wherein a dough is produced from potato starch that can be machined according to the practice in cracker technology.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,455,321 to Glabe discloses a snack food prepared from an extrudable mixture of dehydrated potato flour, baking powder, mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, and water. The mixture is formed into a dough, extruded, and cut. The cut dough pieces are then baked. This patent discloses a process for producing a starchy dough product which is a shaped, hollow potato snack. The process does not involve machining a workable dough in a fashion similar to that used in cracker technology.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,600,193 to Glabe discloses a process for preparing a snack food product that includes the steps of mixing ungelatinized corn flour and gelatinized corn flour together with seasonings such as tapioca starch, milk solids, sodium chloride, starch phosphate, and other flavoring materials. These ingredients are mixed to form a dough and then extruded. The extruded dough is shaped as desired and cut into pieces. The cut dough pieces are steamed at between 190.degree. F. and 210.degree. F. The steamed dough is dried and deep fat fried in vegetable oil at a temperature between 390.degree. F. and 400.degree. F. This process involves the step of extruding the dough before steaming. The product of this process is not a baked snack food.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,922,370 to Prakash discloses a process for producing a snack product from a dough formed by mixing together water and a dry mix of ungelatinized rice, rice flour, modified starch, and flavorings. The dough is shaped into separate pieces and steamed at a temperature between 95.degree. C. and 100.degree. C. The steaming of the dough gelatinizes the starch contained in the dough. The steamed product is dried in two successive steps. The product is then deep fat fried at between 180.degree. C. and 230.degree. C. for 4 to 14 seconds to yield a rice snack. The product of this process is not a baked snack food.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,348,950 to Weiss discloses a process for making a snack food product by first mixing together corn, sucrose, water, and flavor developing ingredients. This mixture is combined with a second mixture of yellow corn grits, water, and sodium bicarbonate. The combined mixture is precooked under pressure at temperatures between 247.degree. F. and 259.degree. F. and at a pressure of 14 to 20 pounds per square inch. The gelatinized dough is shaped and dried. Dough pieces are formed and deep fat fried. This process does not produce a baked snack food.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,039,912 to Dollings discloses a granular food product made of a wheat flour dough. The dough is successively boiled, baked, dried, and granulated. The formulas disclosed for this snack food can include limited quantities of corn flour.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,505,407 to Johnson discloses a process for making rye products that comprises forming a batter primarily of rye flour, extruding the batter to form dough pieces, baking the dough pieces, and dehydrating the dough pieces to a desired degree of crispness.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,729 to Harms et al discloses a process for preparing a food snack from a corn starch material in combination with an oleaginous material and water. This mixture is extruded under pressure at 350 to 500 pounds per square inch at temperatures above 100.degree. C. to form a "puffed" ready-to-eat product. This process does not apply steam directly to the dough and requires specific abrasion characteristics for the starch material to form the dough. This process does not produce a baked chip-like snack food.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,088 to Cantenor discloses a process wherein roasted corn flour, wheat flour, sugar, and salt are mixed together. The mixture is shaped, extruded, and baked between 140.degree. C. and 155.degree. C. It is then cooled immediately and toasted. This process does not produce a baked snack food having a chip-like texture.
The present invention provides a process for the continuous production of a low-fat content, baked chip-like snack food from a sheeted dough. Starchy ingredients are processed in a cooker extruder to obtain a workable or machineable dough-like composition that can be machined or sheeted and processed according to cracker technology to produce the baked, chip-like snack food.